(September 27, 2010) – While the state budget continues to be negotiated and the associated state general fund support has not been finalized, the California State University will admit up to 30,000 qualified applicants for the winter/spring 2011 terms. Campuses will begin mailing out letters of acceptance today.

"The mission of the CSU is to educate California's students and despite the uncertainty surrounding the budget, we need to provide services as best as we can," said CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed. "We remain optimistic that the legislature is committed to higher education and that the final budget will restore the necessary funding to the CSU. The restoration of funding is vital to allow us to serve these students."

Despite the lack of a budget, the CSU opened up the spring 2011 application cycle on August 1. With no clarity on the level of state support for the university, the cycle was extended past the traditional August 31 deadline. On September 16, the CSU announced that a final round of one-time federal stimulus funding would allow the university to admit a limited number of qualified applicants as well as restore some services that had been scaled back due to budget cuts.

At the end of the spring application period the CSU expects to have received about 50,000 applications and would expect to accept as many as 30,000 new students.

The CSU has seen massive cuts in state support over the last two years and was forced to address the reduction in funding through the use of employee furloughs and workforce reductions, enrollment cuts and increased student fees. The reduction in state support forced the CSU to close last year's spring application cycle, which in turn forced qualified students to apply for admission in the subsequent fall term. This resulted in a record number of applications and unprecedented demand for admission for fall 2010.

To effectively serve both new and continuing students, the CSU awaits the signing of a budget that includes a restoration of state support. The governor's proposed budget includes the first restoration of state funding to the CSU since 2007 with $305 million to restore a one-time cut and an additional $60.6 million to fund further enrollment expansion.

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About the California State University
The California State University is the largest system of senior higher education in the country, with 23 campuses, approximately 433,000 students year round and 44,000 faculty and staff. Since the system was created in 1961, it has awarded nearly 2.5 million degrees, about 90,000 annually. The CSU is renowned for the quality of its teaching and for the job-ready graduates it produces. A recent economic report found that the CSU supports more than 150,000 jobs statewide, annually. The engine driving job creation is more than $17 billion in economic activity that directly results from CSU-related spending that generates $5.43 for every dollar the state invests. The mission of the CSU is to provide high-quality, affordable education to meet the ever-changing needs of the people of California. With its commitment to excellence, diversity and innovation, the CSU is the university system that is working for California.